There are many circumstances in which animals, both human and non-human, may become injured or wounded causing discharge of bodily fluids. When treating wounds which are exuding blood and other bodily fluids, it is advantageous to have an absorbent dressing which is capable of adapting to the conformation of any individual wound. Such dressings may be obtained by using fibre dressings or hydrogels. Fibrous wound dressings often present problems in terms of insufficient absorption of the bodily fluids, and/or they may suffer from a lack of cohesion, which may result in the dressing not being able to be removed from a wound in one piece.
Gel-based dressings have the benefit of being cohesive so that they do not stick to a wound site, making it possible to remove the dressing from the wound in one piece while providing an ideal moisture environment for wound healing. Additionally, they can have a low adherence to a wound site, allowing them to be removed from a wound easily without causing pain for the wounded party.
Wound care devices such as absorbent dressings comprising fibres which can gel are known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 6,998,509 describes a wound care device which comprises chitosan fibres, which are capable of absorbing liquid to form a swollen coherent gel. The chitosan fibres are normally insoluble, non-swelling and non-gelling and so are treated with an acid and heat to convert them into an insoluble, water-swelling and water-gelling form. A similar wound care device is also detailed in US2005/0058694. Such dressings employing the use of gels effectively serve to entrap the absorbed fluids.
It would be advantageous to improve the absorbency of fibre dressings and to maintain that absorbency over the wear time of the dressing.